I’ve been thinking about recommending Arrival in a blog post for some time. Many science fiction aficionados know that it’s one of the best films in the genre released in the last decade. While I love action-packed stories, there is something special about this thought-provoking movie. Told from the perspective of a linguist who is recruited to try to learn how to communicate with alien visitors, Arrival asks: How does language shape the way we perceive the world? What if learning a new language drastically altered our perception? How would that change us? How would it change the ways we interact with the world and make decisions?
There’s little I can say about the plot without giving key elements away. Perhaps it’s best that I didn’t devote a post exclusively to the movie.
And then a few weeks ago, I stumbled onto the story that inspired the film.
I picked up Ted Chiang’s collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others on a whim. When I got to “Story of Your Life,” it quickly became obvious that this was the story on which Arrival was based. While there are some differences between the story and the movie, Arrival captures Chiang’s philosophical style well.
The fact that Chiang is the genius behind Arrival is enough to make me love him, but I was impressed by virtually all of the stories in the book. He tells tales that are unusual, well-written and brilliant. The first story in the book, the bizarre and beautiful “Tower of Babylon,” pulled me in. In this story, the Tower of Babel touches the rock-hard vault of heaven, requiring a four-month journey to reach the top. I’ve read many books based on ancient myths, but nothing quite like this!
At first I thought the second story, “Understand,” was going to be a retelling of “Flowers for Algnernon.” It begins with a man who is receiving experimental therapy that greatly increases his intelligence. But Chiang takes his story in a different direction from its inspiration, leading to an unexpected encounter.
“Division by Zero” tells the story of a brilliant career and a marriage unraveling on parallel paths. “Seventy-two Letters” is a steampunk story in which old Jewish tales about golems and outdated theories about reproduction are the basis of scientific reality. The weakest, and shortest, story, “The Evolution of Human Science,” is written as if it were introductory material in a popular scientific publication. It asks what role humans can play in scientific inquiry if super-intelligent meta-humans are engaged in research that is beyond human understanding. In “Hell Is the Absence of God” Chiang tackles theology as he engages the story of Job. And in “Liking What You See: A Documentary,” he asks: If you could do away with lookism by creating a way to prevent humans from distinguishing each other as more or less beautiful, should you embrace that new technology?
Part of what makes Chiang wonderful is how fresh most of his work feels. Part of what I love about him is how incredibly intelligent he is. He tackles math, science, philosophy, theology and more in a thoughtful, thought-provoking manner.
I cannot tell you whether to watch Arrival or read “Story of Your Life” first. Once you have experienced one, the twist will change the way you approach the other. What I can say is this: Watch Arrival. Read Stories of Your Life and Others. You won’t regret it.